answering the call of battle[net]

you can call me a geek, or dork, or maggot, or, worst of all, a noob (aka newb, nOOb, nub, whatever). it’s all been done before, and besides, it’s all true. none of that matters, because the awesome joy that is playing Starcraft II is well worth some name calling for the right to duke it out mano-a-alieno on the new battlenet.

since I don’t have all that much free time these days I’m advancing through the game at the fairly measly rate of one campaign mission every two days or so (putting me at 7 missions in to the 26-mission campaign mode). too early to tell if Starcraft II is a keeper? please.

on a travie mccoy scale of 1 to awesome, this game’s the shit.

gameplay: the original Starcraft’s gameplay was so easy, a caveman could do it. there were three things you had to know how to do:

point and click with a mouse

hold down the CTRL key while simultaneously typing a number

hit a single letter on the keyboard: for example, A

the new Starcraft’s controls are: the exact same, therefore, perfect all over again. the thing that’s gotten better is some clever new gameplay mechanics in terms of NPCs and playable doodads that really immerse you into the story as you’re playing a campaign mission.

graphics: ignore what you see on websites. I was highly skeptical from what I had seen of SCII’s graphics because every screen grab or Blizzard-issued gameplay shot had a plasticized sheen to it that made it look downright cheesy. apparently, Blizzard just has really crappy screen-grab software. because the game in reality looks amazing. it’s no Napoleon: Total War (man I can’t wait for Shogun II) but it is evocative and mesmerizing. you want to stay zoomed in all the time because it’s so much fun. and the cinematic cut scenes take what Blizzard did with the first SC and crank the dial to 11.

the campaign: to all those people complaining about how this is 1/3 of a game since it’s only the terran campaign, I have to say BOLLOCKS. I’m ecstatic Blizzard is taking their sweet time with the story and using full campaigns to flesh out individual portions. I don’t understand how people can on one hand gripe about how Activision is forcing Blizzard to rapidly crank out brainless sequels and then turn around and complain about how Blizzard is taking too long to bring this complex and engrossing story to fruition. stop being whiny prats and go lose to TLO on Bnet2 already.

multiplayer: don’t know yet, haven’t logged on to multiplayer yet. if you want to team up, drop me a line. I’m holding out until I finish the campaign game first, it’s just that good.

this is going to be amazing once the koreans start using it for pro-league matches. yes, there are professional Starcraft leagues in south korea. with live fans. and televised broadcasts. with commentators. and sponsors. and groupies.

I think it’s one part hilarious, two parts ridiculous, and 100% awesome. and yeah, I will be watching.

today’s closer is Team Liquid’s VOD of their battlenet placement matches. the turret-drop that spells out TLO? tears emerge when I see that.

I beat SC2 a week or so after the release – and now I am eagerly awaiting the sequel/expansion. Great story and cinematics paired with genuinely interesting challenges in the campaign missions. Haven’t gone into multiplayer much yet… but I want to when I have time.